AstraZeneca sites safe

Sweeping changes by pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca will secure the future of its two Cheshire sites. The company is undergoing a global restructuring programme including 25,000 job cuts and in January it proposed the closure of some of its 17 research and development facilities.

Sweeping changes by pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca will secure the future of its two Cheshire sites.

The company is undergoing a global restructuring programme including 25,000 job cuts and in January it proposed the closure of some of its 17 research and development facilities.

Both AstraZeneca’s Cheshire sites – in Macclesfield and Alderley Park – include R&D elements, but the company has said they are both safe., although it admitted some job losses were possible.

The number of people working in R&D at Alderley Park, the company’s largest UK research operation, will actually increase as employees transfer from other locations, while the firm said it anticipated more staff would move to Macclesfield, though it declined to give numbers.

Alderley Park will be boosted by two new R&D units focusing on cancer, cardiovascular and gastro-intestinal medicines.

Anders Ekblom, the Anglo-Swedish giant’s executive vice-president of development, said: “We have made real strides in improving our efficiency in recent years, but there is a continuing need to adapt our organisation in anticipation of future challenges. These proposed changes will help us create a more focused, innovative and productive company.”

Other R&D centres around the globe will be merged or closed ‘over the next few years’, including sites in Leicestershire, Bristol and Cambridge.

R&D staff at Bristol will be transferred to Macclesfield, which currently employs 3,000, or Alderley Park, which has 4,500 staff.

Macclesfield MP Sir Nicholas Winterton said: “It has been bad news from AstraZeneca for about three years but this is good news and a move in the right direction. It will add to the employment in the local economy and is good news for those businesses which supply AstraZeneca or work under contract.”

Across the group, 1,800 R&D jobs will go as the company cuts back some research work, although it said it would continue to invest in all of its current therapy areas. A further 1,700 posts will be relocated.

AstraZeneca has previously said it would focus on buying in new drugs to manufacture rather than developing them itself.